Even though social media sites are becoming a highly effective way for marketers to promote themselves and their businesses for free, most marketers don’t utilize these powerful platforms effectively. They vacillate between feeling completely overwhelmed and feeling that the sites are a huge waste of time.
Social Media marketing is one of my favorite forms of marketing. And there are some basic principles to keep in mind in order to make your marketing more effective and efficient. Here are five important tips that will enhance your social media marketing experiences:
1) Create a Landing Page. A landing page is a one-page website that offers prospects a personalized introduction to you and your business before they see your official business site. Landing pages are crucial to business success. They allow prospects to connect with you on a more personal level, they quickly highlight the benefits of doing business with you and they offer something of value to your prospect in exchange for their name and email address.
As you may have heard before, the fortune is in the list. Savvy business owners understand that they must generate a list of prospective clients and customers and continue to market to them on a regular basis.
2) Set Up a Complete Profile. If you want your marketing efforts to work, make sure that your social media profiles are complete. If prospects land on your profile page and it doesn’t have a picture and contains sparse information, they aren’t likely to feel any connection with you. You should provide as much information about yourself as possible. Remember, people want to get to know you, so give them what they are looking for!
3) Participate; Don’t Push. As you begin to market using social media platforms, always keep in mind the 80/20 rule. You should spend 80% of your time sharing, answering questions and interacting with others and only 20% of your time promoting your business. If you stick to this rule, you will be seen as a true participant as opposed to a pushy sales-person.
4) Be Consistent. Social media marketing is all about consistency. You must log into each of your sites every day (Monday through Saturday). It is extremely important that prospective clients see you on a regular basis. Exposure is the key to gaining your client’s trust and eventual business. So, get on those sites and interact every single day!
5) Create a Daily Schedule. If you don’t have a schedule, you will quickly get sucked into the “social media black hole.” Determine how much time you have to devote to your social media marketing and stick to it! If you only have 60-minutes/day, then only utilize 3-5 social networking sites and generate a strong presence on them. I like to use a timer (honestly!) to keep myself on track. I set my timer and when it beeps, I am off to the next site.
Social media marketing is extremely effective as long as you understand how to tap into its power. If you implement these five tips into your marketing efforts, you should quickly begin to see some great results for you and your small business.
October 24th, 2009 at 11:26 am
when you speak of a landing page and profile I immediately get the impression that is for a business that is service oriented like marketing, mentoring, design, seo, etc. I don’t see the same rule applying to sites that sell products. An example would be Overstock or Tiger direct. SO what is a good direction to go in for affiliate marketing selling numerous products? I found it may be necessary to branch off into individual sites and promote each product as a niche. What marketing platforms work best for driving traffic to a landing page?
October 24th, 2009 at 4:12 pm
Actually, the same rules apply to product-orientated or affiliate marketing sites. However, I do agree with you that you need to create a tight focus for your affiliate sites. For instance, you might to decide to sell animal accessories on one website and video cameras on another website. (You would not want to offer BOTH on the same website.)
Then, it would be much easier for you to market to a specific target audience. Depending on the products that you are selling, I would recommend Facebook, Twitter, blogs, articles, etc as VERY effective ways to drive traffic to your landing page. Once there, your prospect could supply their name and email for additional information.
I can’t think of a business that would not benefit from a landing page of some sort.
November 3rd, 2009 at 8:44 am
Jessica:
For such a short list, this is jam packed with essential information/ideas. Thank you very much. I will now begin to block my social networking time.
Well done!!!
November 14th, 2009 at 3:15 pm
It’s funny that you finally spoke up! I have been waiting for someone to bring this out to the open! Anyway… nice post. I will be back.
November 14th, 2009 at 4:33 pm
I REALLY liked your post and blog! It took me a little bit to find your site…but I book marked it. Would you mind if I but a link back to your site?
November 17th, 2009 at 5:26 am
Hi Andrew. So glad that you are enjoying the posts. Feel free to put a link back to the site/blog at any time!
November 17th, 2009 at 5:32 am
Thanks Keith. I must admit that it can become a social networking “black hole” is you don't block out your time!
November 17th, 2009 at 5:36 am
Actually, the same rules apply to product-orientated or affiliate marketing sites. However, I do agree with you that you need to create a tight focus for your affiliate sites. For instance, you might to decide to sell animal accessories on one website and video cameras on another website. (You would not want to offer BOTH on the same website.)
Then, it would be much easier for you to market to a specific target audience. Depending on the products that you are selling, I would recommend Facebook, Twitter, blogs, articles, etc as VERY effective ways to drive traffic to your landing page. Once there, your prospect could supply their name and email for additional information.
I can't think of a business that would not benefit from a landing page of some sort.
November 17th, 2009 at 12:26 pm
Hi Andrew. So glad that you are enjoying the posts. Feel free to put a link back to the site/blog at any time!
November 17th, 2009 at 12:32 pm
Thanks Keith. I must admit that it can become a social networking “black hole” is you don't block out your time!
November 17th, 2009 at 12:36 pm
Actually, the same rules apply to product-orientated or affiliate marketing sites. However, I do agree with you that you need to create a tight focus for your affiliate sites. For instance, you might to decide to sell animal accessories on one website and video cameras on another website. (You would not want to offer BOTH on the same website.)
Then, it would be much easier for you to market to a specific target audience. Depending on the products that you are selling, I would recommend Facebook, Twitter, blogs, articles, etc as VERY effective ways to drive traffic to your landing page. Once there, your prospect could supply their name and email for additional information.
I can't think of a business that would not benefit from a landing page of some sort.